Of the 1,500 tenants, Armistead’s maintenance supervisor estimates that 500 of them own pit bulls. So either the dogs go to the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter — where the vast majority would be pointlessly euthanized — or the tenants break their leases and look for more lax landlords elsewhere.

But there’s still a shred of hope, for now. Maryland Animal Law Center Attorney Anne Benaroya is seeking an injunction on the sudden pit bull ban, to keep “economic havoc” from ensuing as landlord after landlord follows Armistead Gardens’ lead, and many tenants break their leases. Benaroya argues that “anyone who signed a lease or lease-purchase contract prior to the announced ban has a right to keep their dogs.”